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TO THE
WA I S I I I
HISTORY
This is the third edition of the WAIS, with the first edition coming out in 1955, and the
revised (WAIS-R) coming out in 1981. Before the WAIS, however, there was the
Wechsler Bellevue test (released in the 1930s and revised in the 1940s). He developed
a children's version in 1949, and the popularity of it helped increase the popularity of
the adult version, which he released again in 1955. By the 1960s, it was more popular
than the Stanford Binet. This was in part because of the standard scores that allowed
comparison across testings and ages (as we discussed when we talked about the
Stanford Binet), as well as because of what it allowed psychologists to do. It provided a
Full Scale IQ, or a one number estimate of someone's cognitive functioning. It also
provided smaller numbers that were estimates of verbal functioning and visual-motor
functioning, and differences between these numbers were helpful in detecting and
diagnosing learning disabilities.
INTRODUCTION
Basic Information
Basically it works like this. The test has 14 sections (called "subtests"). Each subtest
begins with some extremely easy questions or tasks (collectively called "items"). You
start with the hardest of the extremely easy ones which 95% of the population should
be able to answer or do correctly (or "pass"). If the client fails either of the first two,
however, you back up (the "reverse rule"), giving even easier items as a way to make
sure they know how to do the subtest. You then return to items that get progressively
harder, and you keep going until they miss a predetermined number (the "discontinue
rule"). At the end of the test, you tally the scores for their answers on each subtest
(your first set of numbers, called "raw scores"). You then convert these to a second set
of numbers (called "scaled scores"), so we can compare performance on subtests. You
then add these to come up with a third set of numbers (called "sums of scaled scores")
which represent aggregate abilities. These are converted to a fourth set of numbers
(called IQ or Index scores) that are standard scores (mean of 100 and standard
deviation of 15) and so we can compare the abilities. These are the numbers that really
tell you about a person's abilities and performance.
Improvements
The WAIS-R was revised to the WAIS III for several reasons. Even if you don't know
anything about the old test, you can still appreciate why
they would update the test:
1. it is important to update the norms, as people get
higher scores every 10 years by three points on
the Wechsler series of tests (Flynn effect)
2. the age range of the norming sample needed to
be expanded, since people live longer and get
services at later ages, and some changes to the
test itself were needed
White
(sam)
AA (pop)
AA
(sam)
H (pop) H (sam)
64.84
69.5
15.76
15.00
11.76
11.00
69.05v
71.5
13.47
13.00
13.46
11.50
71.83
75.5
12.67
13.00
11.93
7.00
INDEX STRUCTURE
The IQ and Index scores mentioned earlier allow you to summarize and compare large
ability areas reliably. There are actually three IQs and four Indexes we compute. The
Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) score is the g number. The "old way" of
analyzing the test included "dividing" the FSIQ into two factors, a Verbal IQ and a
Performance IQ. However, updates to the test and additional subtests lead to a factor
analysis resulting in four factors at the last update, and these factors form the four
Indexes: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organizational, Working Memory, and
Processing Speed. We will focus mostly on the FSIQ an four Indexes, but will learn a
little about the Verbal IQ and Performance IQ as well this semester. I'm thinking the
Verbal IQ and Performance IQ will disappear from the next version of the test, but you
should know the basics about it for now. Below, I discuss the Index, and the subtests
combined to make them:
Verbal Comprehension:
This is the first and most reliable Index. The Verbal Comprehension Index is a measure of general verba
verbal reasoning, and verbal knowledge. It is based on both formal and informal educational opportuni
similarities, and knowledge of general principles and social situations.
Perceptual Organization:
This is the second most reliable Index. The Perceptual Organization Index is a measure of non-verbal an
problem, draw upon visual-motor and visual-spatial skills, organize thoughts, create solutions, and then
comfort with novel and unexpected situations, or a preference to learn by doing.
Working Memory:
The Working Memory Index (WMI) assesses ability to memorize new information, hold it in short-term m
some result or reasoning processes. It is important in higher-order thinking, learning, and achievement.
as learning and ability to self-monitor. WM is similar to STM, but STM is traditionally seen as a
Working Memory is an active process (sometimes called complex span of memory).
Working Memory (WM) is a temporary storage and workspace in the brain, "the blackboard of the mind"
moment-to-moment information, archived information, and a link between them both before storing new
reading ability (think holding previous words in the sentence in memory while you sound out the ne
verbal fluency (think about considering the impact of your word choice before or while you speak a
problem-solving and adapting (think monitoring progress at a problem, rating how close you are to a
if you are not succeeding, and speeding up or slowing down your work speed to finish on-time)
possibly to ADHD (think the ability to integrate some past instructions with current stimuli deemed i
unimportant)
possibly schizophrenia (think ability to take in new stimuli about the world, and compare and balanc
the "phonological loop" which serves an auditory processing and practicing function, which seems r
development Remember Miller's famous 7+2?
the "visuospatial sketchpad" or a visual analysis and processing part that holds 3 or 4 objects, and s
solutions Remember Einstein's Theory of Relativity was largely developed in his head with complic
the "central executive" that controls these two parts, delegating work to them and receiving their an
comprehension, learning, and decision making, sometimes allowing rote habit to direct us while it w
Students that excel in reading or math process letters and numbers differently. Thus, there might be anothe
to the prefrontal cortex (the very front of the frontal lobes). It exist in monkeys too, but only after about two
which is covered and then the monkey is distracted. The monkey looks back and chooses the cover with the
There are four clear things we can say about WM:
1.
2.
3.
WM is a real construct:
o
While some have said WM is g, this is not so. WM is correlated with general intelligence, ran
but the controlled studies average .48, or 23% of the variation in general intelligence
WM seems to be an ability that can be strengthen, at least with some kinds of tasks
The WM subtests have good specificity, meaning they are more s than g
Executive functions like "talking through something" in children initially are conducted aloud
finally silent modes by age 9-10
Recall for single units of spatial information (e.g., where on a screen a single dot appears) d
Recall for multiple units of spatial information (e.g., a sequence of dots tapped by the exam
Self-organized strategies (finding hidden dots with an efficient strategy) develops around 16
About 50% of the growth in fluid intelligence from age 7-19 is associated with WM, and 75%
4.
WM seems based in the pre-frontal cortex, and improvements in WM are associated with im
show similarities in immature and damaged cortexes, as well as repair to performance with
WM is a part of "intelligence":
PS in part determines how long it takes information to be called up from long-term memory.
deteriorates while it waits for information from long-term memory to arrives. Thus, WM has
subsystems in order to continue its work. On the other hand, faster processing (quickly matc
tables, letter and number recognition, and sequencing skills) can mean more economical pr
reading and math) is more effective.
Processing Speed:
The last Index, The Processing Speed Index (PSI), assesses skills focusing attention and quickly scanning
information. It requires persistence and planning ability, but is sensitive to motivation, difficulty working
to reading, mathematical, and memory skills as well. Cultural factors seem to have little impact on proc
Processing Speed (PS) refers to the speed at which cognitive processes can be carried out. Faster is mor
First, WM can recall information and do more with it before it deteriorates (think about a multiplication p
stored multiplication tables). Second, WM can integrate more complex and complete concepts before st
account for much of the differences in mathematical ability (Bull and Johnston, 1997).
You might assume that a PET or MRI scan of the brain should show lots of activity for very smart people.
a bird appears on the screen), high and low IQ people perform the same. However, when you add a dec
on the screen, but not when any other color bird appears), higher IQ people have high activity which dim
works on the WAIS too - higher g loaded subtests (the more demanding ones) correlate .79 with the leve
There are four clear statements we can make about Processing Speed (PS):
1.
2.
PS is a real construct:
o
People with faster PS scores perform the tasks at faster rates (in other words, there is good
Reaction time to a novel stimulus at age 3.5 months correlates .51 with the same at 4 years
PSI subtests had good specificity in the WAIS III and WISC III and the WISC IV probably increa
3.
Developmental changes in Gf correlate .53 with changes in PS (in other words, as other cogn
spatial memory, and episodic memory share 70% of their variance with PS, and age differen
PS (more good news about validity).
Decreases in PS are associated with deterioration of white matter and decreased GMR
Processing speed is lower in pre-term children compared to full-term children, and this differ
late as late as 11 years (Rose and Feldman, 1996). For 11 year olds, this amounts to about 6
development of normal and premature births are parallel, meaning they develop at the sam
show up in simple reaction time (as noted above), but premature children never catch up to
to need more time to process the stimuli if they are to reach equal performance. There seem
Jankowski, 2002):
4.
the loss of oxygen in the brain (especially the hippocampus, thalamus, and basal ganglia) d
the loss of special chemicals like docosahexaenic acid which builds up during the last trimes
PS is the best predictor on the WISC for severity of childhood brain damage, with a 70% hit
Processing Speed is lower in patients with multiple sclerosis, which results from the immune
around nerve axons (Demaree, DeLuca, Gaudino, and Diamond, 1999)
PS is lower in elderly drivers with accidents. Processing speed tasks actually are better pred
Intervention programs that provide training to improve processing speed have been shown
PS is lower in children with LD, reflecting problems in attention, writing, rate of learning, and
problems
Children with ADD score lower than children with ADHD, who also score below normal
PS is a part of "intelligence":
o
Reaction time to a novel stimulus at age 3.5 months correlates .37-.56 with FSIQ at age 4 ye
also quickly habituate, and thus do not mistake the stimulus as novel the next time they see
PS is related to verbal fluency, or the speed and ease with which words are generated
Children with reading problems perform at a 10-15% slower rate than good readers, and PS
relates to automated recognition of letters and words, and quickly making a decision based
FSIQ (and thus PS) account for 32% of the variance in reading comprehension and 8% of the
accounts for 20% and 39% of reading comprehension and word recognition respectively (the
words and the access to and the simultaneous integration of semantics, syntactics, and text
Test-Retest Reliability
SEM
.96
.96
.91
.95
2.3
2.5
3.7
3.0
Perceptual
Organization
Working Memory
Processing Speed
.88
4.0
.89
.89
3.8
5.1
As you can see above, the reliabilities are very good (1.00 would be considered
perfect), and the Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) is generally small. Most
subtests have test-retest reliabilities between .81 to .94, with a few falling lower. As to
practice effects over a one to three month time, Verbal IQ increased about 3 points,
Performance IQ about 6 or 7 points, and Full Scale IQ about 4 or 5 points. Inter-rater
reliability is also rather good.
Content Validity was established by expert judges who reviewed the
items. Criterion Validity was established by correlating WAIS-R and WAIS III. The
numbers are good, and Full Scale IQ is about three points higher on the WAIS-R, as
expected by the Flynn effect. The WAIS III is also correlated with the SB4, the WISC-III,
the WIAT, etc
Construct Validity was established using a factor analysis. Studies found that g was
supported, and that verbal subtests correlated better with each other than
performance subtests. The same was true for performance subtests verses verbal, but
not as strongly.
Other efforts to establish Construct Validity come from correlating the WAIS III with
other intelligence tests. Groth-Marnat tells us the WAIS III Performance IQ and
Perceptual Organization Index correlated with the Ravens Matrices .79 and .65
respectively. While these numbers may not seem spectacular, recall the the test-retest
reliability of the Ravens Matrices for a one to three month period is about .80, so given
the reliability of the test, the WAIS III correlates almost perfectly.
Studies of cognitive disorders revealed:
Dx
ADHD
LD
MR
Data
Working Memory is 8.3 points lower than Verbal
Comprehension, and IQ is usually average
Verbal Comprehension is 7 points higher than Working
Memory for a reading LD and 13 points for a math LD.
Perceptual Organization was 7 points higher than
Processing Speed in both LDs. 24% show a partial ACID
profile (lower Arithmetic, Coding, Information, and Digit
Span
Typically, a relatively flat and rather low profile is seen
with no real spikes or significant elevations
ICD-9-CM
94.01
MeSH
D014888
[edit on Wikidata]
1History
3WAIS
4WAIS-R
5WAIS-III
o
5.1Verbal IQ (VIQ)
5.2Performance IQ (PIQ)
6WAIS-IV
o
6.2Subtests
6.3Standardization
7Other test variants and uses
8References
9Further reading
10External links
History[edit]
Wechsler's scale is founded on his definition of intelligence, which he defined as "... the global
capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his
environment."[3] He believed that intelligence was made up of specific elements that could be
isolated, defined, and subsequently measured. However, these individual elements were not entirely
independent, but were all interrelated. His argument, in other words, is that general intelligence is
composed of various specific and interrelated functions or elements that can be individually
measured.[4]
This theory differed greatly from the Binet scale which, in Wechsler's day, was generally considered
the supreme authority with regard to intelligence testing. A drastically revised new version of the
Binet scale, released in 1937, received a great deal of criticism from David Wechsler (after whom the
original Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence scale and the modern Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale IV
are named).[4]
Wechsler was a very influential advocate for the concept of non-intellective factors, and he
felt that the 1937 Binet scale did not do a good job of incorporating these factors into the scale
(non-intellective factors are variables that contribute to the overall score in intelligence, but are
not made up of intelligence-related items. These include things such as lack of confidence, fear
of failure, attitudes, etc.).
Wechsler did not agree with the idea of a single score that the Binet test gave. [4]
Wechsler argued that the Binet scale items were not valid for adult test-takers because the
items were chosen specifically for use with children.[4]
The "Binet scale's emphasis on speed, with timed tasks scattered throughout the scale,
tended to unduly handicap older adults."[4]
Wechsler believed that "mental age norms clearly did not apply to adults." [4]
Wechsler criticized the then existing Binet scale because "it did not consider that intellectual
performance could deteriorate as a person grew older." [4]
These many criticisms of the 1937 Binet test gave rise to the Wechsler-Bellevue scale that was
released in 1939. While this scale has been revised many times (resulting in the present day WAISIV), many of the original concepts Wechsler argued for have become standards in psychological
testing, including the point-scale concept and the performance-scale concept. [4]
2. used the point scale concept instead of the age scale, and
3. included a non-verbal performance scale.
WAIS[edit]
This section
requires expansionwith: WAIS vs.
WAIS-R above.(December 2009)
The WAIS was initially created as a revision of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (WBIS),
which was a battery of tests published by Wechsler in 1939. The WBIS was composed of subtests
that could be found in various other intelligence tests of the time, such as Robert Yerkes' army
testing program and the Binet-Simon scale. The WAIS was first released in February 1955 by David
Wechsler. Because the Wechsler tests included non-verbal items (known as performance scales) as
well as verbal items for all test-takers, and because the 1960 form of Lewis Terman's Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scales was less carefully developed than previous versions, Form I of the WAIS
surpassed the Stanford-Binet tests in popularity by the 1960s.[2]
WAIS-R[edit]
The WAIS-R, a revised form of the WAIS, was released in 1981 and consisted of six verbal and five
performance subtests. The verbal tests were: Information, Comprehension, Arithmetic, Digit Span,
Similarities, and Vocabulary. The Performance subtests were: Picture Arrangement, Picture
Completion, Block Design, Object Assembly, and Digit Symbol. A verbal IQ, performance IQ and full
scale IQ were obtained.[7]
This revised edition did not provide new validity data, but used the data from the original WAIS;
however new norms were provided, carefully stratified.[7]
WAIS-III[edit]
The WAIS-III, a subsequent revision of the WAIS and the WAIS-R, was released in 1997. It provided
scores for Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and Full Scale IQ, along with four secondary indices (Verbal
Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Organization, and Processing Speed).
Verbal IQ (VIQ)[edit]
Included seven tests and provided two subindexes; verbal comprehension and working memory.
The Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) included the following tests:
Information
Similarities
Vocabulary
Arithmetic
Digit Span
Letter-Number Sequencing and Comprehension are not included in these indices, but are used as
substitutions for spoiled subtests within the WMI and VCI, respectively.
Performance IQ (PIQ)[edit]
Included six tests and it also provided two subindexes; perceptual organization and processing
speed.
The Perceptual Organization Index (POI) included:
Block Design
Matrix Reasoning
Picture Completion
Digit Symbol-Coding
Symbol Search
Two tests; Picture Arrangement and Object Assembly were not included in the indexes. Object
Assembly is not included in the PIQ.
WAIS-IV[edit]
The current version of the test, the WAIS-IV, which was released in 2008, is composed of 10 core
subtests and five supplemental subtests, with the 10 core subtests comprising the Full Scale IQ.
With the new WAIS-IV, the verbal/performance subscales from previous versions were removed and
replaced by the index scores. The General Ability Index (GAI) was included, which consists of the
Similarities, Vocabulary and Information subtests from the Verbal Comprehension Index and the
Block Design, Matrix Reasoning and Visual Puzzles subtests from the Perceptual Reasoning Index.
The GAI is clinically useful because it can be used as a measure of cognitive abilities that are less
vulnerable to impairments of processing and working memory.
Two broad scores are also generated, which can be used to summarize general intellectual abilities:
Full Scale IQ (FSIQ), based on the total combined performance of the VCI, PRI, WMI, and
PSI
General Ability Index (GAI), based only on the six subtests that the VCI and PRI comprise.
Subtests[edit]
Verbal
Comprehension
Similarities
Vocabulary
Information
Core
Description
Participants
are given
two words
or concepts
and have to
describe
how they
are similar.
Depending
on the
tasks,
participants
must name
objects in
pictures or
define
words
presented to
them.
Participants
are
questioned
about their
general
knowledge
(Comprehension)
Perceptual
Reasoning
Core
Block Design
Matrix Reasoning
Visual Puzzles
Spatial reasoning
(Picture
Completion)
(Figure Weights)
Working Memory
Digit span
backwards
Core
Description
Participants
must recall
a series of
numbers in
order
Digit span
sequencing
Arithmetic
Participants
must retain
a series of
numbers
and recall
them in
ascending
order
working
memory,
transformation
of
information,
mental
manipulation
and
visuospatial
imagery
Participants
must recall
a series of
numbers in
increasing
order and
letters in
alphabetical
order
(Letter-Number
Sequencing)
Processing
Speed
Core
Symbol Search
Coding
(Cancellation)
Visual-perceptual speed
Standardization[edit]
The WAIS-IV was standardized on a sample of 2,200 people in the United States ranging in age
from 16 to 90.[8] An extension of the standardization has been conducted with 688 Canadians in the
same age range.
with respect to neurotypical or brain-injury norms. As the WAIS is developed for the average, noninjured individual, separate norms were developed for appropriate comparison among similar
functioning individuals.